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But he told me to wear good shoes some ibuprofen ,ice and Rest which actually worked ...

So an anti-inflammatory as well. I guess something like that could be helpful in the short term. I would wonder about taking very much for very long. There should be a list of possible side-effects in the packet: I'd have at look at that and be aware of them.

... and stayed off my feet most of the time hence the no wt loss I guess ....

I don't know. Is activity as important for weight-loss as the mainstream thinks? Nevertheless, I guess a base of low-level exercise is good in general for health, anyway. Can you do something else? Perhaps swimming is a possibility. I guess with
cycling the foot must flex, too, so maybe that would hurt.

... so now i added back the walking and it's back again.... I also bought orthaheel shoes which helped some initially too.... Going back to the regimen that worked before and will see if I get any relief ...I will look into the Alexander teacher as well ....thanks for your input again...

So no-one offering that near you. I suppose this uses the same database:

Comment

i will call the doc up and see if I can get some help in the mean while staying off my feet and doing stretching exercises doc told me to do initially.

Sounds like you have a good doctor -- at least one that's aware of areas that others may not be.

Thanks for your help again...willl report back..

Yeah, do. And if what you're posting is up and current maybe someone more knowledgeable than I will pass this way and comment.

I notice that Wiki says:

Some evidence shows that stretching of the calf and plantar fascia may provide up to 2–4 months of benefit

I think that's interesting. It seems to fit in in several ways. I think it would be naive to see the problem as located in shortened calf muscles, for example. However, I could see it as related to a wider pattern of organization that included shortened calf muscles. I think you have to see the human body as a complex system -- and not only that but one that is in movement. In fact, we're never really still: there are some interesting experiments where they tie a light to people's heads and film them from above when they're "standing still". No-one really is. There's always some sway; and interestingly the degree of that looks to correlate with emotional stability and mental health. So we're a complex, interlinked system and we exist in movement.

I could imagine that someone's calves could get shortened over time. There could be any number of reasons for that: high-heeled shoes spring to mind, but there might also be more subtle things. It could also be impacted by, for example, the way you sit in a chair. Beyond that, there's the way you actually get into the chair.

I'm getting out of my comfort zone here, but my understanding is that someone's "stretch-reflex" could be over-sensitive. As a muscle lengthens that reflex tends to come in to protect it, but I think it can come in too easily.

Although a bit of an oxymoron, the action of a muscle which gets longer as the tension increases is called an eccentric contraction because the ends of the muscle move away from the center as the tension in it increases

But I think often someone might not be allowing that to happen. The result might be that someone gets around that by taking other strategies of getting into the chair -- throwing themselves into it, or collapsing into it.

To back away from the detail, which, as I say, is getting over my head and is perhaps a bit speculative anyway -- it could well be that the way you get into a habit of doing quite simple things on a daily basis could impact on something like the length of those calf muscles.

I think that could explain why you something that should be quite normal and painless to do could, over time, become problematic.

It might also explain why (a) there is some benefit to stretching out the muscle and (b) why the benefit is transitory -- "2–4 months of benefit".

The point is that the stretching alone probably wouldn't get to the root of the matter. Because what you do every day -- habits you've got into -- things as simple as how you get into and out of chairs -- impact on you. As soon as a stimulus arises, it might be a piece of furniture or a stair or something like that, your habitual way of "using yourself" reasserts itself.

This is why I like Alexander -- because it tries to get inside that process and give the individual the tools he or she needs to start to untangle that.

But there are other approaches that might be a help. Feldenkrais, if anyone near you does that, might be worth a go.

Also, disciplines like osteopathy or chiropractic might help. It's more passive than AT -- it's the therapist doing something to you -- and the thought has to be that between sessions habitual learnt responses cut in. But it could be another avenue to explore.

With the stretching -- you have to be careful. Feel it out. Make sure the pull is coming where it is supposed to, not somewhere else. Try to relax into it.